Among the most anticipated and admired films of 2014, Selma depicts the epochal series of marches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) in Selma, Alabama, which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Brought to the screen with power and sensitivity by director Ava DuVernay, this Oscar-nominated docudrama features a host of inspired and often intimate acting and noteworthy musical selections, which include the Oscar-winning song “Glory.”

AT A GLANCEPlus
4K video, including scaling and HDCP 2.2
Excellent audio quality
Simpler to use than Hodor
Minus
Missing some popular features like AirPlay and Internet Radio
No Atmos or DTS:X

THE VERDICT
Plenty of power on tap and easy to use. A few quirks that don’t amount to a hill of beans. Best of all, it sounds great!

Sony posted a video blog on their Website introducing the STR-ZA3000ES and touting how easy it is for a professional installer to set up this AVR. Guess who else would find it simple? That’s right, an 8-year-old! Not since my Sherwood stereo model (circa 1982) has a receiver gone into my oft-refreshed setup with as little fuss. That doesn’t mean this AVR isn’t capable of feats of bravery and bravado; it is. A dealer installing it can easily program it to drop a projection screen when you select the Blu-ray player’s input, or hook up a second HDTV in the bedroom to show a source that’s different from the one playing in your home theater.

Ever wish you had a few more HDMI ports on your TV for connecting a gaming console, media streamer, and other devices? Kinivo’s K300 4K HDMI Switch adds three ports and is currently selling for $35 on amazon.com.

Q I have read that the electrolytic capacitors in audio equipment can degrade and leak after years of use and that sound quality will suffer as a result. Is this true? I have a few pieces of 25-to-30-year-old gear that still sound fine to me. I’ve also read that upgrading capacitors can improve sound quality. Is that another myth? —Rob Gerry / via e-mail

If you haven’t yet embraced streaming and still order discs through the mail from Netflix, you may be worried that your disc days are numbered. But even as streaming booms with continued aggressive expansion and more than 65 million customers worldwide, Netflix is not ready to back away from its disc rental business, according to a recent New York Times report.

THE VERDICT
If you want a home theater system and you want it now, these speakers will suit a draconian budget. Let a thousand starter systems bloom.

Late last year, a Florida man walked into Starbucks and ordered a Grande Latte with 99 extra shots of espresso and 17 pumps of vanilla syrup, mocha, and matcha powder. His tab was $83.75—more than a pair of Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers. He was a big spender, of course, but if you ordered, say, a White Chocolate Mocha every day for two weeks at $4.65 per cup, you’d still spend more than the price per pair of these speakers.

Dave Grohl is often acknowledged as being the nicest, coolest/cheeriest guy in rock & roll, and while I can indeed confirm Messr. Grohl is (to use a technical term) an absolute mensch amongst mensches, I also happen to think Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen could give Dave a run for his money. Collen is also passionate about sharing his creativity beyond the lighted stage, and he's the mastermind behind the self-titled debut of Delta Deep. “You could call it a punk/blues mixture,” Collen says of the album. “We just made music that made us feel great, and there are loads of people out there looking for that who appreciate that. There are a lot of people out there who dig real music.” Recently, Collen, 57, and I got together to dive on down into Delta Deep’s sonic origins, rediscovering the joys of vinyl, and the signal he gets when he’s in the right improv zone onstage. Pour some blues sugar on us, Phil.